Learn to Fly
by immortaljedi
Summary: This is a Percy Weasley/Madame Hootch love story one shot. You heard me. Percy and Hootch. Wanna know more? read it. one kiss. that's it. I'm not good at het love scenes.


I saw a picture the other day of Chris Rankin (the guy who plays Percy in the Harry Potter Movie) with the woman who plays Madame Hootch hanging on his shoulder. This popped into my head. It wouldn't leave me alone until it was written. Oh, and I don't own any of this, I'm just playing  
  
Learning to Fly by Immortaljedi  
  
Percy Weasley entered the Leaky Cauldron, adjusting the shoulder strap of his messenger bag. It was lunchtime and for once, Percy decided to actually eat instead of working through his lunch hour. Hr found a small table in the corner and sat down to wait for the waitress. He took off his glasses, lying then on the table, and rubbed at his sore eyes. He really needed better light in his office. He felt a presence across from him and he squinted across the small table, making out the blurry form of Xiamora Hootch. He quickly put his glasses back on.  
  
"Xiamora! How are you! What are you doing here?" The flying instructor of Hogwarts laughed.  
  
"I'm fine Percy. As for what I'm doing here…it's summer. I have the summer off, and I figured I needed to get out of Scotland…and I wanted to check out the broom shop." Percy laughed.  
  
"I should have known." The waitress came over then, "Please, say for lunch?" Xiamora agreed and they placed their orders.  
  
"So how have you been, Percy?"  
  
"I've been good, all in all. A little lonely, a tad underpaid, and very overworked, but other than that, everything's peeches."  
  
"Peeches?"  
  
"One of my coworkers is American. She says that all the time. That and 'greatness,' and 'shibby.' She's smart though, Very competent."  
  
"She pretty?" Xiamora asked a bit sharply.  
  
"Why, Xi! Are you jealous?" Hootch huffed.  
  
"Hardly. What do I have to be jealous of?"  
  
"Exactly." Hootch took a long look at Percy. His lips were pulled into a small almost there smile and his eyes twinkled behind his glasses. She took a long look at him. He was tall, very tall, at about six foot four, and his red hair shone like gold and rubies in the candlelight, accentuating the paleness of his milky skin, broken only by a few random freckles. He sat relaxed, though a hint of weariness was etched around his eyes. His voice was deeper, too, more of a low tenor than the boyish soprano or the deep alto he had graduated with. He certainly had grown a long way from that small first year, trembling on a broom, scared of heights. 'It was a shame he had that phobia', she thought wistfully, 'he truly could have been great flyer. It's in his blood.'  
  
Meanwhile, across the table, Percy was studying the athletic inspector. She still kept her light hair short, bringing out her strange golden eyes. She looked exactly the same as she had nine years ago, when he was a first year. 'She really isn't that old,' thought Percy, 'about 7 years older than professor Snape…and 12 years older than I am. Not old at all. Quite striking, too.' They sat there, just looking at each other until the waitress came with their food, looking at them with a knowing eye. They ate and chatted about random topics easily. Finally, they had fallen to silence over tea and Percy had laughed.  
  
"What is it Percy?"  
  
"Who'd ever have thought that we could be friends like this?" he looked down to their hands, which had ended up somehow clasped over the table. "Or more than friends, if this leads where I think it's going." Hootch smiled.  
  
"I think it is. And to answer your first question, most of the strongest relationships I have ever seen came out of people who everybody thought were wrong for each other. Take your parents, for example, Nobody thought they'd ever hit it off, and look what happened. There are seven of you." Percy smiled.  
  
"Yes, well, six and a half. The only thing I have in me that's 'Weasley,' is my looks. I don't act like any of them, or think like any of them, or anything really. I'm the only one who wears glasses, the only one who doesn't play Quidditch…I can't even ride a broom." She squeezed his hand.  
  
"Don't think like that Percy. I'll have you know that your mother was exactly the same way. She's a very smart witch, and it surprised everybody when she fell for an eccentric like your father. Everyone thought it was teenaged rebellion. It wasn't really hidden that she hated expectations on herself." Percy nodded.  
  
"But I bet she could fly." Hootch nodded.  
  
"Yes…after your father took away her fear of heights." He looked at her eagerly.  
  
"How?" She smiled at him.  
  
"by loving her. Giving her confidence." he nodded his head. "like I could do for you." He looked up at her hopefully. "If you want."  
  
"Oh, I definitely want." She smiled.  
  
"Good. We can start slow. You can take me to dinner tomorrow." Percy laughed.  
  
"I would be honored." She grinned.  
  
"Meet me at Hogwarts tomorrow, on the Quidditch pitch. That won't be a problem?" Percy shook his head, and they stood. "Well then, I'll let you get back to your work. I'll see you tomorrow Percy." He nodded again.  
  
"Goodbye Xi."  
  
"Goodbye Percy." She stretched up and pulled him down so she could reach his cheek with a peck goodbye, Xiamora Hootch left the Leaky Cauldron. Percy went through the rest of the day in a daze.  
  
  
  
***Percy's first year***  
  
Next to him, Oliver was twitching with excitement. Then again, Oliver was always twitching with excitement. He was a bouncy kid. Percy listened to Madame Hootch give the instructions. He raised his hand like the rest of them.  
  
"Up," he whispered. The broom jumped into his hand startling him. His was one of the few that did as obeyed. His, Oliver Wood, and the Slytherin, Marcus Flint were the only three. Moments passed and the grin on Oliver's face grew. They were told to mount their brooms, hover, then set back down.  
  
Percy mounted his broom, his heart going a mile a minute. 'I don't like heights, I don't like heights, I don't like heights,' he repeated to himself over and over again as his ears were filled with the roar of his heartbeat. The command came and he shut his eyes. His feet left the ground. His breath was coming in short gaspes. He couldn't hear. He couldn't see strait. He couldn't breathe. He looked down.  
  
He fainted.  
  
He wasn't out long and opened his eyes to see the concerned gaze of the yellow, hawk-like eyes of Madame Hootch.  
  
"Mr. Weasley, are you alright?" His answer was weak and strained.  
  
"I don't like heights."  
  
That was the last flying lesson he had to take. Madame Pomfrey, who was concerned about his heart, excused him. His fear was just too great. Hootch came to visit him often, however, and, surprisingly, he learned to trust and confide in her, this woman who was the exact opposite of everything he was. This developed into a friendship that would last a very long time, and, eventually, turn into more.  
  
***Present Day***  
  
Percy sat unnoticed in the bleachers the next day, watching Xiamora Hootch fly on her broomstick. There was a reason why she was the flying coach, and this was it. She was a beauty; all grace and agility. The afternoon sun shone on her light hair, making it twinkle with gold, and her blue robes fluttered behind her, like wings.  
  
His mother got over her fear of heights when his father loved her. Looking at Xiamora, Percy couldn't wait to learn to fly.  
  
  
  
END  
  
  
  
I hope you liked my little snippet. This will probably be the only het relationship I ever put Percy in and don't fit in at all with my other Percy, the one in Harry Potter and the Oldest Immortal, and soon his own story. I'm sorry, but in my opinion Percy is gay, no ifs ands or buts. What about Penny you may ask? Read my other Percy story when it comes out, in full, this summer.  
  
And a little self-promotion never hurt anybody.  
  
I have been, am, and always will be, Immortaljedi. 


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